Now the Six Nations is over It’s time to review the progress that Stuart Lancaster has made since the autumn internationals. When he inherited
the job in 2012 everything was broken, selection, moral, coaching team and the support
at Twickenham. With some dogged
performances in 2012 we clawed our way back from the precipice. In the autumn we miss-fired in the first
three games and then it all changed.
It all started with that win in November against the All
Blacks. From out of the blue we beat the
world champions with style and guile.
Not since 2002 had we lifted the Cook Cup so this was an important
event. The question on everyone’s lips
was “were the All Blacks over cooked or were England the masters of the
Universe”?
After the excitement died down I compared the match
statistic of the All Blacks game with those from the match we lost against the
Springboks and surprise, surprise there wasn’t much to choose between the two. This should have told me something!
At the start of the Six Nations France went to war in Mali,
I recalled a terrible English season in 1983 following the Falklands war and
wondered if there was any correlation between Rugby performance and armed
conflict
Watching France and England shuffle their team around to
accommodate their “best players” I was acutely aware that playing out of
position in Rugby and life can be a miserable business
Before the final weekend’s show down in Cardiff I
pontificated on the chances of and England win and our relative strength and
weaknesses – what did I know!
Just before the game I looked at the special relationship
England has with its closes neighbours
 |
| Why would you dislike England Rugby and its supporters? |
Finally, after THAT GAME I looked at where it all went wrong
and what needs to be done now
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